Guild Chat - Episode 92

Guild Chat - Episode 92

Title

Metal Legion

Host

Rubi Bayer

Guests

Connor Fallon
Novera King
Joseph Clark

Date

September 24, 2019

Official video

YouTube

Previous

91

Next

93

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.

The 92nd episode of Guild Chat aired on September 24, 2019. Rubi sits down with three of the devs responsible for bringing the charr metal band Metal Legion to life as part of Prologue: Bound by Blood.

Summary

Introductions

• Connor Fallon sang the guitarist, named the band, and designed the Metal Legion-related game content.
• Novera King wrote the lyrics for Ballad of Soulkeeper and Bound by Blood.
• Joseph Clark sang the lead vocalist, wrote the music for all the songs, played the guitar, and collaborated with Keenan Sieg to produce the songs.
• Chelsey Shuder (not a guest in this episode) and Novera King sang the bassist and the drummer, but they forgot exactly who voiced whom.

Conceiving Metal Legion

• The idea of creating a charr concert first came up around December 2018.
• Metal was an obvious choice for genre, but subgenre was harder to pin down. Bands such as Danzig and Gwar were considered as inspiration but rejected. They looked to non-American bands such as Alien Weaponry and The Hu for inspiration on the sound, which they wanted to feel visceral and charr-like. The feel of the concert is described as "industrial, mid-'90s mosh", inspired by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. The structure of the lyrics was inspired by Metallica.

Creating the concert

• The gameplay of the concert event was inspired by WarioWare.
• The mechanics of the crowd-surfing mini event were stolen from the Shattered Observatory Fractal bouncing ball game.
• Joseph created a very early version of Bound by Blood, then called Dragonhunter, for Connor to use in testing. (A 30-second clip of Dragonhunter is played at 17:56.)
• Synchronizing events with music had not been attempted before, and was complicated to pull off. For example, getting the band to shift their animations in time with the music required a dedicated sub-objective called "Choreography" with around 150 triggers.
• Kyle Bash created most of the new props in the concert, including the speakers, drums, and the guitar, to which he added an animation (internally named "Mad Max") with flames shooting out the end. Connor used this animation for the guitarist's solos.

Writing the lyrics

• The lyrics for Bound by Blood are intended to be charr propaganda influenced by Bangar Ruinbringer. The line "We are pure" was forbidden from being included in the German translation.
• Ballad of Soulkeeper is free from Bangar's influence, and is intended as a tribute from Metal Legion to a charr hero they admire. It was written knowing that it was to be played as the final song in the concert, and was designed to synchronize with the appearance of Pyrotorrick on stage.

Transcription

[Music (0:41): Ballad of Soulkeeper]

Introductions (6:20)

"You guys look amazing!"

Rubi Bayer: Hey Tyria and welcome to Guild Chat! I'm your host Rubi and we are talking about Metal Legion today. Just to start off, if you were waiting on the Metal Legion music, that's on our SoundCloud now so you can go grab that for yourself. It's going to be on some other music-streaming platforms in the next couple weeks; if there are some that you don't see our music on, if there's a platform you don't see our music on and you would like to, please drop that in chat and we will see what we can do about that over time. You will also notice my sweet Metal Legion T-shirt that you can get on For Fans By Fans right now. So our friends at For Fans By Fans are selling the concert shirts, the band shirts, and you should all definitely go get one.

Novera King: Do it!

Rubi: But I want to talk to the minds behind Metal Legion today. So, you guys look amazing!

[Rubi turns towards her guests, who are dressed all in black like they're about to attend a metal concert. Novera makes the sign of the horns with both hands.]

Joseph Clark: Thank you.

Novera: Thank you.

Connor Fallon: [Grunts]

Rubi: I am not- [laughs at Connor] I am not worthy at all. You get one more grunt and then you have to introduce yourself and talk about what you worked on.

Connor: Well then I've gotta time it well. Alright.

Rubi: No, you have to do it right now. You have five seconds.

Connor: Oh. [Grunts]

Rubi: Okay. Now, why don't you each introduce yourselves, talk about what you worked on and what part of Metal Legion you had.

Connor: Oh yes. So, I am Connor. I was the designer on this content and I was the "singing" voice of Varus Chainrazor,[sic] the guitarist.

Novera: You're gonna make me remember- I'm gonna ask you what my band-

Connor: Crispa Head... wrencher...

Novera: Okay, yes!

Connor: No! Fangwrencher.

Novera: I named her and I can't remember! Alright. Hi, I'm Novera-

Rubi: It's been a long day.

Novera: I know! It's been a long day! I'm Novera King, I did all the lyrics for the songs except for "Fear the Metal Legion". But then- Did I name the band? So maybe I can take some partial-

Connor: I named the band.

Novera: You named the band? Aw, damnit. Alright, no. I have nothing to do with "Fear the Metal Legion". And-

Rubi: Please stay anyway!

Novera: I know! I wrote the lyrics for the other two songs and I am the vocals that are the bassist of the band, Crispa. I'll just call her Crispa. That's good enough.

Joseph: I'm Joseph Clark, Senior Sound Designer here at ArenaNet. I wrote the three songs, music. Worked heavily with Novera to figure out the lyrics, and... Let's see. Played the guitar. And association, I worked with Keenan Sieg who helped me kinda arrange and get the final product. Uh, yeah. I don't know.

[The others burst out laughing.]

Novera: You're the lead singer!

Connor: You also sang! You sang the songs!

Joseph: I sang. I don't remember that guy's name.

Rubi: It's okay, we have video.

Connor: Zolius... Fiendseeker.[sic] I looked at these dang names every day for like, months.

Novera: Yes, that's why you remember them.

Connor: Yes. And then, Chel- Just as a factoid, since we've just revealed that the singing voices are all people in this room, Chelsey, our cinematics artist, cinematics lead-

Novera: Cinematic Director.

Connor: Yeah, is the voice of the drummer, Enneca... something.

Novera: No, she's the bassist. I'm the drummer.

Connor: Oh, she's the bassist, you're the drummer? Alright. [addresses the camera] We lied to you earlier. Sorry. [points at Novera] You're the drummer.

Novera: Yeah.

Connor: Chelsey's the bassist.

Novera: This is really important! I think people at home are like, "Oh God, that's the most important thing you can tell me right now."

Connor: Yeah, clearly!

Novera: But yeah. It was good times.

Rubi: I like your flaming drum sticks.

Novera: Woo!

Conceiving Metal Legion (9:40)

Rubi: Alright, so let's just kind of talk about how this came to be, and if you guys have questions, drop them in chat; we will try to answer as many as we can at the end. We also have some questions from the forum that I suspect a lot of you want to know anyway, so we will cover those toward the end of the show. Why don't we talk first: how and when did this idea come up in the first place?

Connor: So, early on on projects we have, you know, before we're really getting rolling, I think we had just wrapped up A Star to Guide Us, right? We have some inklings of the direction that it's going to go on but it hasn't really been locked down, and the inkling of the direction that we had was that we were doing a charr party episode. And so we had a thread, we were discussing all the different things that could be in a charr party, and someone jokingly said, like, "Oh yeah, like they should have a concert!" And then we kind of moved on from that. And then I went home, and I thought about it overnight, and I came back the next day and I'm like, "I wanna actually do a concert." And I went and basically was like, I talked to Joe [points at Joseph] and I talked to a bunch of people, "Do you think we can do this? Like, is this a thing that we're even capable of doing technically? Having music that's sync'd for everybody?" And the answer was, "Maybe? But we should try!" [laughs] Like, that's an accurate summary of the first reaction.

Rubi: Yeah! And when was this?

Connor: I don't know.

Novera: December.

Connor: I feel like December, January? Yeah, like-

Rubi: It was like, last December.

Novera: Yeah, this was definitely-

Joseph: It was a long, long time ago.

Novera: It went up on the whiteboard so it was definitely December that at least the idea of a concert was being thrown about.

Connor: Yes. Yes. And then it kind of, you know, it ballooned from there, right? I had a very old- I think the first thing that was ever written was a really temp version of "Ballad of Soulkeeper" that I was singing to myself on the bus. And then from there it was put on pause for a while, cause, you know, we had an entire other episode to make!

Novera: Yeah.

Connor: But, you know, I was building out the event functionality, and... Joe. Like at that point, Joe, you started making like prototype songs, right? Like-

Joseph: Yeah, I stayed late one night and wrote a quick track just cause we needed something in the game, just to kind of feel. And I wrote a song called "Dragonhunter", which then became "Bound by Blood".

Novera: That, I feel like, happened though after we had at least had some conversations about, like, what would be... What genre of music would the charr be into?

Connor: The moment I- Yeah. The moment we were like, "metal", Novera turns like- She's like, "Guess what? I'm a huge metalhead!"

Novera: I'm like, "my misspent youth will be of use here!"

Rubi: No, then it wasn't misspent!

Novera: No, it wasn't. It wasn't misspent at all. I think, as we started to talk about, "It's got to be a concert!", "We want the players to really have a lot of energy!", it seemed really like the natural, organic progression was to go into, "Well, we need a mosh pit!" and like, "What is the energy that we can create from that?" So it became really apparent that we needed like a metal sound, but metal has such a wide range.

Rubi: Yeah! They're like, "What kind of metal?"

Novera: Exactly! Which, I have to say, might have been like my f...

Joseph: [Mumbles unintelligibly]^{[verification requested]}

Rubi: What?

Joseph: There are many subgenres.

Novera: Exactly, many subgenres. And I think that might have been, in the early days, my favorite part of building out this concert was trying to figure out what our references were going to be, like, what kind of music, and just spending like... I spent an inordinate amount of time like, being like, "Oh, are we... Are we Danzig? No." [laughs] Know what I mean? Like, "Are we Gwar? Eh... No!" But like, you know, all of this kinds of stuff.

Connor: It is worth noting, the temp files that I got from him [points at Joseph] were named "Jwar?"

Novera: Yes! Yes, because we definitely-

Rubi: [Addressing Joseph] What? Are you serious?

Joseph: [Nods, mumbling unintelligibly]^{[verification requested]} Jwar.

Novera: Yeah, because like, spectacle-wise, we were like, yeah, a Gwar concert is like ridiculous, but is that the sound that we want, right?

Connor: Yeah.

Novera: And I think, I don't remember at what point, it must have been like last January, we had a meeting that was specifically about genre, and we had sort of started looking at - I'm gonna plug some bands here - we started to look at bands that weren't typical American metal, because we were like the charr have this very specific energy and it's not, you know, their names are based on like Roman, Spartan kind of culture but also there's, like, references to Mongolian culture there. We wanted something that wasn't grounded in something in the West, necessarily, in terms of energy. So there's this great Maori metal- Maori thrash metal band called Alien Weaponry, if you don't know them, go find them. Them and then this amazing Mongolian metal band, Hu Band. H-U. Not the British band, but H-U. They have a track called "Wolf Totem", and then-

Connor: I said there's [unintelligible] the British band at some point and the world will explode.

Novera: No, I don't think that those things should come together like that, that... eurgh. But look up Hu - "Wolf Totem" and then Alien Weaponry - Rū... Te Ana... Whenua...?[sic] I can't say... It's a Maori word. I don't speak any Maori languages. But the energy of those songs I think kind of put us in the right headspace of the kind of visceral-ness that we wanted this concert to have. And the pit energy of the players: we wanted, like, the sound that we ended up with, that Joe ended up landing on for the sound of the songs, is one type of metal, but I think that the energy in the concert itself is a different kind- it's like, more like almost an industrial, mid-'90s mosh kind of, you know, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult feel to the actual events that you [gestures towards Connor] created.

Connor: Yeah.

Novera: So I think that once we had all of these different references it kind of fed our creativity in different ways. And then lyrically, for me, I looked at a lot of, like, Metallica songs specifically, in terms of like the structure of their lyrics, like "Master of Puppets" and "One" in particular, to sort of give me some thoughts and ideas about how I could structure the lyrics of the song, so.

Creating the concert (16:14)

Connor: And meanwhile, like, we're trying to figure out like technically if we can even do this. [laughs]

Novera: Right! Right, right.

Connor: So like, one of the big things was like... So, early, very early, I started with very early prototypes; the initial idea I had was "Guild WarioWare", right? Where it's like, these rapid-fire mini events that are like, you're running around trying to chaotic- like, frantically keep the concert running. And so an initial prototype I did just had a couple events, right? It had a really early version of the crowd surfing event that didn't work very well, but-

Rubi: Oh really?

Connor: Yeah, I wound up completely gutting that and just... One of the takeaways is if you're making a bunch of mini events and variety is the key: steal liberally. And so actually the surfing event that's in the game is basically lifted from the fractal... There's a fractal challenge, I think in the lobby, where there's a bouncing ball? And I just took that and turned it into an event and that became the crowd surfing event.

Novera: That's awesome.

Connor: But yeah. So and I was doing this and I was using Super Adventure Box songs, right? But one of the big questions was like- that we were kind of interested in- having things lightly sync'd to the music. Like when there's a big drop, like, you know, can I have the lights change? Or can I do all these... Can I have things change on stage based on time? And so that's why you [points toward Joseph] made "Dragonhunter", right? So I could- Cause I was using Super Adventure Box songs that looped, but we needed one that started at one point and ended when the event ended. So, uh and... [addresses an off-stage technician] do you have "Dragonhunter"? I mean you could just play a bit of it, it's "Bound by Blood" with dragon roars.

Rubi: Yeah, let's see what it sounded like.

Novera: Yeah. Basically, yeah.

Rubi: Alright, let's hear it.

Screenshot displayed during the clip of "Dragonhunter". Pyrotorrick is visible behind the band.

[Music (17:56): 30-second clip of "Dragonhunter" plays along to a screenshot of Metal Legion performing on stage.]

Connor: So yeah. We had this, we could drop it in-game, and I was able to basically start scripting things around the actual music, which is something we hadn't done before. And this is a screenshot- Can you bring up the screenshot of the triggers?

Rubi: Oh yeah, that huge list! Because this is so complicated!

Connor: Yeah.

[Brief pause as they wait for the technician to find the screenshot, but no dice.]

Connor: Aww... okay.

Rubi: Okay. So... but the thing is, it's not just- Changing positions is not just a single thing.

Connor: Yeah, yeah. Basically I had- The event is- The actual event has a bunch of sub-objectives and one of them is called choreography. And the choreography event is like three hundred- Like, I'm exaggerating a little bit, it's only about a hundred and fifty different triggers-

Rubi: Oh, is that all?

Connor: Yeah, only a hundred and fifty different-

Novera: Oh, it's a smidgeon of...

Connor: Yeah, yeah, yeah! It's like, I'm listening to the song, and like, okay, so the guitar changes at this point, so they should change poses, and like the guitarist changes poses at that point. And it's like, if you watch the concert like occasionally it gets de-sync'd, but like most of the time, for most performances I've seen, like the people on stage are doing things that's lightly sync'd with the actual music. The drummer's obviously harder cause, like, we only have so many animations. The drummer's not perfectly sync'd with the beats, but like, it's still like when the drums get faster, the drummer gets faster, right? And once we had "Dragonhunter" and we were able to test it and see it in game and like, this actually feels like a performance happening in-game, on top of the gameplay side of, there's the crazy events that you're running around, jumping in the mosh pit, which was another early one, trying to defeat the Crazed Fans to keep them from killing the band... It became clear that this was a thing that could really work. It's just... There was a lot of work to get it to actually work.

Novera: Yeah. I think having "Dragonhunter" as well, because there were no lyrics for "Bound by Blood" at that point and so using that as a template for how... what we should do lyrically, because we had, you know, basically almost a composed piece at that point. You knew you [looking at Joseph] wanted to do a couple different things, but it also- We used it as a template for what we should and shouldn't do when we moved into "Ballad of Soulkeeper". That we knew that we wanted it to be different musically, but also Connor was like, "Okay with the solos!" [laughs and addresses Connor] Like you know the issues that you had in terms of choreography of the band and the dynamics and the range there.

Connor: Yes. Yeah. I only had so many animations- How I solved that problem is actually kinda funny in a very nice- Yeah, so, I only had so many animations, right? For the guitarist, I had like the new one that I got where the guitar's up like this, [begins playing the air guitar] and then the old bass one where they're down like this [leans forward]. And there's some really cool solos- Not the initial "Dragonreaper", but like some other- As you kept iterating on the songs, right? And I'm just like, "I don't have an animation that's intense enough for this solo", right? Like I don't have them down on their knees, like, being nuts. But the prop artist - when making me the- he made me an alternate guitar for the band guitarist, right? - had added an animation state to it which he called "Mad Max" which was fire shooting out the end of the guitar that I did not- It was not on the request list!

Novera: That's so amazing.

Connor: He's like, "I just added this animation cause I felt like it!"

Rubi: Wait, who is this?

Connor: Um... Kyle. Kyle Bash, I believe.

Rubi: Oh! Okay, go Kyle!

Connor: Yeah! Kyle Bash did most of the props, so like the new speakers, the drum set with the dead devourer that's one of the, like... [plays the air drums]

Novera: That's so great. That's so great.

Connor: But yeah, he gave me this animation that's like, there's fire shooting out of it. I'm like, "Okay, that's great, I don't know..." and I ended up using that as the solo animation. So whenever there's a really intense solo, fire shoots out of the guitarist's guitar. And like... And then I was like, I remember I was having this moment of like, "I can't... like, solos are impossible to choreograph!" and then like a day later I'm like, [gestures towards Novera and Joseph] "You got your way. We got solos."

Novera: [Laughs] Because we were like, we do need solos, right? You can't have like an awesome metal song and not have some-

Joseph: I didn't do solos at first cause of the limitations. I thought, you know, it wouldn't work out. So, then yeah. Just listening through it without the solos it's like, "Mmm, it's just not really knocking my socks off", you know? I mean...

Rubi: So at this point, I mean, this is- You're just at the beginning of figuring out, "Yes, we can actually do this."

Connor: We're jumping throughout the timeline a little bit, but yeah.

Rubi: Yeah. But this is kind of early days. You've got new animations that need to come in. Thank you again, Kyle. You've got all these new props.

Connor: The ani- Yeah, I forget who did the animations or I'm not going to be able to pronounce his name.

Rubi: Oh, no.

Connor: Yeah. But he's cool!

Rubi: But he's cool. Okay.

Writing the lyrics (23:26)

Novera: I think a lot of this... It's weird, this timeline. The concert is probably the event that spanned the longest amount of time from inception to actually completing it, for all of us, in all of our departments.

Rubi: Yeah. This is a huge labor of love.

Novera: Yeah. Because I feel like, you know, as Connor was figuring out, like, how to deal with some of the technical issues, and, you know, Joe and Keenan were figuring out on the audio side, it was also creatively, like, what do we want these songs to do in this greater, like... you know, from my perspective, from the story perspective, here we are we're trying to do this, like... we've got like nationalism and like fascism and like pride: like how do we make this work for the party and work for the story at the same time? And so there was a lot of like, "Okay. Well, we'll make this song- We'll say that Bangar invited the band. We'll say, you know, he's trying to find other avenues to capture the minds and hearts of the charr and get them on his side." And as we all know, propaganda is a thing. He's got a Minister of Morale already, and you know, we were like, at least one of these songs should be one where Bangar had some influence on the lyrics. Which, after listening to "Dragonhunter" and then realizing that it was going to become "Bound by Blood", that energy, I was like, well this is the perfect one to throw in some things that feel like, "charr pride, charr pride, charr pride" and then you get a lyric where you're like, [leans back suspiciously] "Was...-"

Joseph: "Step back. What a what?"

Novera: "Wait a second. Did I just say what I thought I said along when I was singing this song...?!" Like, you know, that make you a little bit uncomfortable and a little bit like, "That's a little problematic, that lyric there."

Joseph: Like "Afternoon Delight".

Novera: [Snorts] Just like "Afternoon Delight!"

Connor: Exactly like "Afternoon Delight".

Novera: Just like "Afternoon Delight", the most metal of metal songs!

[Everyone laughs.]

Rubi: Okay but there is that moment with "Afternoon Delight" where everybody, the first time you hear it, have that moment of...

Novera: "What am I singing about?"

Rubi: "Hold up, what is this about?"

Novera: Yeah, "what is this about actually?"

Rubi: "I don't think this is about a picnic."

Novera: Yeah, exactly! Exactly.

Rubi: So, for those who haven't heard the lyrics, what were some of the lyrics that make you take pause?

Novera: So I think that first bridge in "Bound by Blood" where it starts to talk about, like, the birth of the Black Citadel, like "our Citadel rises erected on the corpses of... our ruined nemeses"?

Connor: Our nemeses.

Novera: Yeah. I wrote these lyrics; I don't remember them anymore!

Rubi: It's been a long day!

Novera: Like, the song is sort of like, you know, we're playing, we're playing, you know, "bound by blood", we're talking about being charr, how awesome charr is... And then, at that moment, the song kind of shifts a little bit to be, "not only are we awesome, we will bathe in the blood of our enemies, and our enemies are everyone who's not charr." Do you know what I mean? And then like, by the end it goes, you know, "we are charr, we are one, we are pure", which is a really super problematic lyric, to the point of - here's a little piece of trivia - if you're listening to this song, if you're looking at the lyrics in German... that phrase is not allowed in that country. So like, Loc came to me and they were like, "Novera?"

Rubi: "Have a seat."

Novera: "This is a problem. This lyric is a problem." And I'm like, "It should be a problem. It should be a problem in English. It should be a problem in Spanish." Like, when you hear that, it should trigger a little bit of like, "What's going on here?"

Rubi: Which fits the theme of the entire episode.

Novera: Exactly, exactly.

Rubi: So this fits because every once in a while, like, you get a little peek behind the curtain and you're like, "Hold up! This is not right."

Novera: Yeah. "Something is making me a little uncomfortable." But we wanted it to stay so heavy and so, like, strong energy that you would take a minute, listening to it once or twice or three times through before you're like, "What?!" [laughs] You know what I mean? Like you should, because you should be like so in it. And "Bound by Blood" was going to be that song, but then that meant we wanted "Ballad of Soulkeeper" to be the song that Bangar did not touch. That is Metal Legion's song; that is their tribute from a group of charr to a charr hero. And so constructing that song was very different in the way that we approached it, and the things that we had learned from "Bound by Blood".

Connor: "Ballad of Soulkeeper" also had the interesting constraint of - talking about having things sync'd to the music - of, "Hey, I want to have this very early on, very early prototype." So I'm like, towards the end of the song, a giant monster shows up on stage and you have to fight the giant monster cause the pyrotechnics go wrong. And so we needed- we wanted a musical shift that sync'd with that transition. And so there was an interesting constraint to work around when, like, working on that song, is that the concert had the event built into it that the song needed to support. Um... but yeah.

Novera: I actually liked that constraint.

Connor: Yeah.

Novera: In terms of like- Because for that song, I started working on like an outline of what the lyrics were gonna do thematically before you guys started working on the music for it.

Joseph: Yeah.

Novera: Which was kind of fun because I started with like, Connor's telling me, "It needs to be this long. This is where there are physical event shifts on the stage is when Pyrotorrick comes out." And so using that structure and the time, I could go, "Okay, well then I want the beginning of the song to be about, you know, Almorra's warband and growing up and how like, effing awesome it is to be part of a warband, that's really awesome, and growing up in the fahrar, and then have this moment that's Kralkatorrik and the horror of that", like have a tonal shift to the lyrics which then needed to have a matching tonal shift to the music, where things get really uncomfortable and really kind of like, "Oh, the music is taking me to a scary place a little bit." And then like have her vengeance, and then at the end have this fight with Kralkatorrik, and like- So the song had these really great sections based on gameplay that then lyrics built around that and music.

Joseph: Because-

Connor: Keep going.

Joseph: In whole, this whole concert was like peak dev collaboration.

Connnor: Yeah.

Novera: Yes. Yes.

Rubi: That's what I've- Yeah.

Joseph: From all the departments. Like, amazing. And "Bound by-

Rubi: That was something I was going to ask about. Sorry. If I can.

Joseph: Go ahead.

Rubi: One of the things that we've talked about before is that the separate teams work together very, very well here. That's a thing that we are good at and there were a- You had so many different moving parts that all had to come together perfectly. How hard was that? Were there road blocks? Or were there parts where everybody had to step back and say, "Okay. Something's not working. We need to we need to re-evaluate. We need to figure out where to go with this." Or did it just all flow perfectly?

Novera: [Looking at Joseph] Why don't you start?

Joseph: I mean, there were mo- Like every- For all of us like everything depended on each other, you know? So like it was very important that certain things were happening in correct times and I can think whenever- when one of us kind of hit a roadblock or something, the other person would just jump in and be like, "I got you. Let's figure this out." And I got in collaborative work which was just awesome.

Novera: Yeah. I spent a lot of time sitting on Joe's floor in his studio-

Connor: Yeah, me too.

Novera: Being like, "Okay, I pretty much feel like the first draft that I wrote of "Ballad of Soulkeeper" that I gave you had a section that just said "words words words words words words words words words" cause I was like I have no idea like how many measures you need here, like what it should do. So lyrically I definitely think like I owe Joe a lot just sitting in that space and we would try something out, we would try out a word, he would try to record it, we'd be like, "Oh, no. That's not right. Let's do something different." You know in my head I had a certain idea of what charr should sound like, you know? I feel like we were all looking to each other to be like you know, "Give me feedback on whether or not this feels authentic to you. Whether or not this sounds authentic to you. Does this make you go, 'Hell yeah!'" you know what I mean? Or is it making you go, "Meh, it's alright." like, you know? So I definitely think this has been a collaborative highlight from me here at ArenaNet, working with these guys on that. And to just see the fans, how they've reacted, it's like... It's been really kickass.

Connor: Yeah, my favorite- It's been a couple like, now obviously it's been a period where people have played the concert a bunch of times and I am that person who, I've been so close to this event for so long, I will show up at almost every time it's up and just like spy in the back of the car and be like, "What are people doing?" And one of my favorite things is people yelling like whenever there's the moments where all the rest are like "Soulkeeper! Dragon Reaper!" like people yell and chat in all caps or things like that.

Novera: Which, key piece of trivia for "Ballad of Soulkeeper": so, you know, Connor mentioned that like early on- Did you mention that you had written a version of lyrics for "Ballad of Soulkeeper"?

Connor: Yes.

Novera: And Connor will be the first to admit that like his musical-

Connor: Wait, wait! If I'm going to be the first to admit it, I should admit it!

Novera: I will admit it for you! You want to- You want to admit it, Connor?

Joseph: Let her speak!

Connor: I have always had a soft spot for metal, but I am not as metal fluent as Novera.

Novera: Has you really though? Has you really though?

Connor: I have.

Novera: Okay.

Connor: Um, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't have wanted to make a metal concert-

Novera: But I feel like your musical comfort zone for your own-

Connor: -is musicals.

Novera: Yeah. Exactly. And so like-

Connor: Yes, yes. It's what my family was- I was super into musicals.

Novera: Yeah! And there's no- Don't- There's no shame in that game, like musicals are fabulous!

Connor: I never said there was any shame! You're making me look-

Novera: I'm not. I'm saying, y'all: Musicals are fabulous. But I feel like-

Connor: "Fabulous."

Rubi: This is a small room. We don't have room for a fight.

Novera: No, no, no, no. This is a- I'm like- Have you seen my shoes? I would totally win.

Connor: Let's throw- The most metal thing ever would be if we just start throwing down in the middle of- You do. You have spiky shoes.

Novera: I do like my shoes.

Rubi: Wait till we're in a bigger room. Carry on.

Novera: A weapon. But I think that the first set of lyrics that you had, that you also recorded, they definitely had a musical feel to them in terms of like it was a conversation between Kralkatorrik and Almorra which, for a different kind of musical piece, would have worked really well.

Connor: There are metal bands that do that kind of styling with different singers playing different parts, but it wasn't the feel we were going for.

Novera: But it wasn't something that actually worked for us. But the last third of "Ballad of Soulkeeper" that "Soulkeeper! Dragon Reaper!" Face it: those are Connor's lyrics-

Rubi: Go, Connor!

Novera: -that worked so beautifully for that section and by doubling it up and and like having the backing vocals come in, it became like a rallying cry for the concert, for the events, for the players. And so that- What I really- I'm very thankful for that first draft of lyrics that you had because it worked really beautifully in that section.

Connor: I mean one of the reasons why Soulkeeper was the first one, I remember that when we were choosing the three songs I was really, I repeatedly was like 'we should really do one about Soulkeeper' because her story is really like, it's one, I think it's one of the best side character stories that we have, right. She has been through a lot.

Novera: Yeah she has.

Connor: The song is just can't help but be powerful. As a result when it's telling like, there's so many lyrics in the final version that you wrote that when I listened to them like that's like when Souleepers vigil remains unshaken, like when the vocal, when you yell that, it's just really like I can see the vigil using that as like a rallying cry for themselves. It's powerful. It's actually funny though the temp lyrics, because we didn't get to get, Ballad of Soulkeeper was the last song we did.

Novera: Yes.

Connor: and we needed a record all-

Novera: Down to the wire.

Connor: Yeah. We needed to record all our open-world dialogue first and so there's actually in the open-world to a drunk Norn and a drunk charr singing lyrics, that are not, to a song that doesn't exist. They're singing the Kralkatorrik versus that lines that I wrote like, "None can stand against the brand. All will be this dragon slayer" Eh whatever.

Novera: You still got it! It's still in there.

Connor: I remember it. The thing about it being musical influence is the version I was much more like melodic right? So I what happens is I get the tune stuck in my head and that helps me remember it. So yes, I still, I still remember it.

Novera: I love it. I mean I appreciate your your musical-ness.

Connor: Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate your metal-ness because without it the concert would not be nearly as badass.

Novera: I mean.

Connor: Sorry, nearly as cool.

Rubi: Too late. You said it. It works.

Novera: This is the metal legion guild chat, drop some, badass-ness.

Rubi: Yeah. I was like, don't, lets see where this goes. ^{[verification requested]} All right so you mentioned down-to-the-wire, I mean again the idea began way back last December.

Novera, Connor, Joseph: Yeah.

Rubi: and then finally everything was wrapped up and ready to go, what like two three months later?

Novera: Laughter I'm sorry.

Rubi: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry.

Novera: My hysteria just like... I think that the final lyrics like the final locked lyrics were two weeks before we shipped?

Joseph: Think so, yeah.

Rubi: Two weeks before we shipped.

Connor: For Ballad of Soulkeeper.

Novera: For Ballad of Soulkeeper. Because -

Connor: We'd locked down the other ones way before.

Novera: Bound by blood, I mean was done a good, month? Six weeks?

Joseph: Yeah.

Novera: Probably more than that actually because bound by blood

Rubi: before shipped?

Novera: was going to be in the trailer, yes. So we had to finish

Joseph: They had dependencies, yeah.

Novera: Bound by Blood because we knew that you know Jason Byfield was gonna need it for a template for the trailer and

Rubi: Right

Novera: so that was good but then we were like okay we have time to do Ballad of Soulkeeper the right way and doing it the right way just took, time. And I have to say that I wrestled with those lyrics so much because it needed to be like an emotional thing right?

Connor: Yeah.

Rubi: Right.

 but between that
and then musically landing where it
needed to be and this is the same time
like the audio department is doing the
whole audio for the whole game ya know
you've got other events you're doing
I've got like other dialogue like voice
timing the whole the whole shebang yeah
this is art this was our like we do
other stuff and then we'd come back to
this and yes we were talking about how
progress was made and how we're all I
kind of dependent on each other I feel
like it's accurate to say like the
concert was completed in chunks right
like whereas like there's this wave and
like alright let's take a break and
focus on everything else then there's
another way okay let's take a break and
focus on everything else yeah that was
kind of our workflow because just we
needed some things to come in place
before we could move forward a lot of
the time in Ballad sole keeper was the
last one right it was less it's like
here's this big epic rock metal song
that is that I'm gonna need to do
choreography for but like it needs to it
needs to match up with everything yeah I
also think that you know correct me if
I'm wrong but I think each of us was
doing something we'd never done before
for this game yes yeah we were all sort
of out of
our comfort zone because had you written
like composed I don't do a lot of music
now basically none may have a background
but like yeah so it definitely was very
interesting progress because like I
wrote em song yeah and then like this
works okay I'll figure that out and I'll
be the song yeah and then it's like I'm
gonna do ten vocals just so that we know
what the vocals can sound like and I'm
like these actually work do different
style just let it speak for it so the
whole time they were out there I did
know they were okay okay
well they I was doing that all my room
and they could hear me
is he okay yeah why are you screaming
yeah so then they asked like quick video
this okay so but was so that was one
style that ended up not making it
correct yeah I was just we also got the
V did we show the video of the group
already not yet okay yeah let's show the
group video cuz
to a recording of our backup vocals yeah
coming at the end all right let's take a
look
[Music]
okay you guys face is so hardcore she
got into character she's driving around
like a metal meanwhile I'm wearing play
okay like I feel like she was like and
like the tulle album was just about to
come out oh yeah oh yeah it was like way
I was like ready for that I remember the
because we were just talking about how
like the musical influences like the
moment we get in that room Chelsea comes
up to music oh yeah I'm so happy we're
doing this like and then she starts
asking me all these questions and I'm
like yeah it I definitely think that not
only were we all out of our comfort zone
but this concert for us I think was a
labor of love because yeah absolutely so
much additional work from each of us
outside of like the normal things that
we needed to deliver yeah that I think
that like you know I mean I would
definitely will say that there is some
some stressful moments here like I had
never the last time I wrote anything
close to approximately like these lyrics
with some bad poetry and college it's
been a while and you know I was I was
looking up that I don't know if y'all
know but our narrative director Tom
Abernathy is in a band he's a songwriter
okay so I mean he doesn't do metal but
the first time I wrote lyrics for bound
by blood I was like Tom look at these
Tommy they don't suck like you know I'm
trying to get it the idea of like rhythm
and meet her and like you know how to do
that properly but you ballad a sole
keeper especially cuz I felt you were so
nervous about presenting those lyrics
you sent them and you're like we're
gonna have to yeah yeah it never was
like these are these are first-pass guys
a first pass and then don't it's like
we're gonna keep working on them and
then she'd show them everybody I'm gonna
be like yeah these are great let's move
on oh wait
okay these are really cool okay yeah
there was definitely a lot of nerves
because also I love this this type of
music do you don't I mean like I had
these horrible like I spent so much
specially with ballad a sole keeper like
I don't know how many times the words
Metallica's one came out of my mouth
especially when I was dealing with Joe
because you know like looking at that
song and how emotionally effed up it is
there were some aspects of that that I
really wanted to imbue into Ballard sole
keeper and I felt a lot of nerves about
not doing almora justice but also about
just not doing metal just like that kind
of like I wanted I wanted people to
listen to it and be like yeah this is
like a hardcore this works like you know
I was working with the audio team and
they're all these they're great
musicians and I so I had all this nerve
like so many nerves about like sharing
it with them but I have to say that like
I feel so much happier now like me
collaborating and I'm more confident in
the work that we did and yeah be there
be talking about collaboration there be
frequent times when you'd like show us
early versions of the song and we'd be
like we like this it's great
maybe this little thing here Keenan had
a story I forget he had a specific story
that he wanted us to tell yes you had
just said it'd be nice if there was a
way to kind of pay I got a much to like
Crockett orc theme so there is a part I
think it's the battle intro of the song
is like don don don don so we heard that
like you know this would be really good
for the like transition into the pirate
ork flight I had I'm like hoedown sound
in transition bump up didn't really
really happy without anyway I'm like try
through that and there's like picked up
a guitar and just play that in and it
was like too perfect he was a psycho
right now this was meant to happen yeah
wait turn again collaboration and it
went again like with the score
yaagh Rafi like that's the moment when
pirate auric is rising from the stage
yeah and all the lights turn purple
which talking about collaboration yeah
Eric oh my god shout out for like he got
I gave him so many ridiculous text
requests and he did talk about in the
last guild chat yeah yeah yeah that we
had the ability to tilt tint lights but
we didn't have the ability to tint
gadgets so the hole that whenever the
lights change in the concert and all the
spotlights change color that's only
because Eric figured out how to make
that happen so that I could make all the
lights turn purple and pyro Tariq shows
up which there's two moments of the
choreography which I am most happy with
as far as like the general scene one of
them is when pirate orc shows up that
transition and the other one is for the
solo during high blood when he goes
pwned
boy I think it's a broad and all the
lights turn red and like it just those
are the there's there's a couple those
are the two moments from like yeah like
we've really pulled it off like it feels
like you're in a concert in this MMO
yeah yeah yeah and like I know I also
think you know props to Joe for being
our vocalist yes like it feels temp like
the locum actually came up to me at one
point and they were like who is your
lead singer we're trying to figure out
if he's like a Norwegian death metal or
like whatever and I'm like is Joe Clark
right you know like Howard Joe Clark
like you know he's just you know cause
you're Norwegian right yeah but it
sounds so legit like your vocal sound
and then was a chart you are legit show
you're latina
yeah yes yeah yes all the implementation
yeah another technical miracle was the
if you enter the concert late you need
to hear it around the time when you're
supposed to be hearing it right yeah
Keenan Keenan did a lot of crazy
technical stuff to make that happen
actually light and that was the first
thing we needed to know
right for doing things sync to the music
we need the music to be synced for
players that's the first step when this
was first pitched it was like can we do
this in like not currently um we do have
the technology had the technology is
seeking to files we do you do that a lot
yeah
so he's kind of working with that
figured out way to actually have this
happen yeah and he used dragon bash as a
prototype yeah it's true yeah used the
bash the dragon like that's they were it
was not the testing ground so nothing
was hanging on it but it's actually
synched for players a so he could test
it so everything happening for everybody
at the same time same thing yes so thank
you guys for accidently helping us test
that surprise there's also a another
thing that Keenan did that's really
really nice I think that someone
commented on was he made an alternate
muffled version of the track far away
yes yeah when you get closer it fades in
the actual track and it really really
helped convey that feeling of like
there's this loud at that show yeah just
not gonna censor myself and you're
you're approaching it and it feels it
you want you want everyone get most
people get there on time but it feels
cool to get there later
so like one of those times
it had me having a flashback actually
because you know I grew up in DC and
there was this this radio station and W
doesn't exist anymore but they used to
have this H of Festival every summer and
it was like 25 bands for $20 or whatever
and they had it was an RFK Stadium and
there was like a main stage number like
three stages outside of the stadium and
sometimes you would be listening to like
an outside band or just walking out at
the vendors and then you would hear a
main act on stage it was like a surprise
act and everyone would come rushing
stampy it would be away and you would
hear it from all over and you'd be like
holy shit is that Run DMC those kinds of
things are like you know is that
disturbed are they on the stage all of a
sudden so that kind of thing it gave me
this concert I had so many flashbacks
even just watching players play it my
face was hurting on release day from
smiling and watching you in the mosh pit
because that's what we wanted it to feel
like we wanted it to feel like if I were
actually a physical being in this pit I
would probably be bleeding I know I got
really nervous
Halina first I got really
because this was an this is an unusual
event right yeah yeah it's it's an
unusual event mechanically it's unusual
like audio audio wise like there's every
single thing about this is weird and and
there was this and you know we was also
marketing it and like this is very cool
we're going to promote it which it would
change the paradigm in my head from like
this is this weird side thing that
people will discover too
people will go into the episode knowing
about this and having expected we put
the band back in warband line and showed
up oh yeah which is Connors line yeah I
mean I often the designers right temp
dialogue and and sometimes if the temp
dialogues decent some of it gets carried
over though Alex wrote the Alex wrote a
lot of the really great final yeah Nolan
North is the voice of the lead singer
when he's not saying yes delivery is
great there's actually a lot of you guys
are all too good at the concert so you
haven't seen it but the crowd is really
mean if your hype is low and if the the
I think on the wiki someone just added
the one for the first song where they're
like you're not a real legion you filthy
Gladio a bit like the in the second song
which isn't on there if your eye is
still below a hundred percent someone's
like if I wanted to hear garbage I'd
stick my head in a sewer grate and now
you know the line so you don't need to
do poorly at the club just to hear it
just continue having great times
please don't deliberately fail it just
to hear the talent one thing you guys
haven't mentioned is the Balor sole
keeper in a derby car that's right yeah
it's not valid soul keepers metal Legion
yes yes there is an event in the story
where you need to fix that the machine
you're fishing the machine yeah honey
like great since its metal Legion when
the car actually turns on it's a little
bit radio static and then the song kicks
on like they were listening to it
before the Commodores they were yeah I
just I mean met Allegiant they're super
super popular throughout with all the
way I mean yeah yeah especially in the
Box it at all I don't be added a bunch
of posters all the kids are loving
Medellin it's the format as the minister
morale says the kids say okay as the
Cubs say is the Cubs belfry your fur and
bash your bones and it's like you
originally had Krisha respond to go to
Billy do they say that there's no
guarantee that Krisha would be there and
also it's the line was red but there's
like a couple variations of the
announcement and which one is randomly
selected and I wouldn't be able to it
wouldn't be this okay everybody but in
spirit creatures going really yeah is
that we use imagine creature like
grimacing grimacing to herself every
time the minister of morale man I really
like that here here's another like
little tidbit Deborah Wilson is our
minister of morale and she's like this
amazing actress and voice actress and
whenever she's dealing with she's
awesome but she having her be the
minister morale and sort of like weirdly
trying to speak to the man in their own
language but like not yeah it's not
really her deal it was kind of yellow
cup I like yeah I like when you succeed
the event she's like yeah like lean into
the idea of her having a hand in picking
their songs affecting which which lyrics
that they might have choosen all that
kind of kind of leaning into I feel like
there's this this sub story that we told
very subtly of like you're basically
having a client that's kind of difficult
they need to put on the show the show is
potentially that it is
the biggest gig the old legion ladder
rally is of a huge deal but the clients
kind of making all these weird demands
and so I hope people kind of took that
away that like bound by blood it has a
couple of problematic moments where
you're like what
but you shouldn't think that's a
reflection of the band itself it's a
reflection of Bangor's agenda yeah
because when you listen to ballad sole
keeper or you know fear the metal ijen
they're like legit songs if you just
rock fear the metal legion are so deep
it speaks for metal legion by the way if
you have any sort of ear wormy issues
with these songs you are not alone oh my
god months I have been waking up with
like refrains from bound by blood thanks
so much in my head at like 3 a.m. or
like you know what I mean like the thing
is Joe doesn't look sorry he's not
you're not sorry
good songwriting right there ya know
you're like I will hear the music yeah
and then your voice going yeah whatever
I can't do the voice any parts okay
fresh mark you got the ears over here
which are processing on top of it okay
all right note it is getting late we are
gonna open for questions here in a
second I do want you to do one more
thing for me and mention who's and talk
about Sid this is great this is so sweet
yeah Sid said the Asura roadie is named
after
character I played in a tabletop RPG who
was also a roadie who had who had for a
band that you know he didn't quite
appreciate him and and with this is a
bit of cannon we can give you say it is
a historic college dropout he's just you
know trying to find a new way in life
but yeah said since it's great and
actually I made his composite look a
little like the character in the game
yeah wait it's like if a couple people
are like CID it's clearly a Final
Fantasy reference like oh I didn't even
think of that
it's a because you know generally I'm
not for references but I figured this
one was like it's like naming something
after your cat right it's like it's
something putting a little bit of
yourself in this thing that you care
about so CID the beleaguered roadie
who's running around being like
everything's on fire that's okay so can
we have the forum questions mark all
right and we'll go there's one that
you've already answered and as soon as
you gave this I was like oh my gosh that
guy okay sure
if you guys have questions go ahead and
put them in chat we do have enough time
to do that yeah I mean I feel like we'll
just all do it at once
so a lot of people were like okay so can
there be more meta Legion songs and
concerts can we have bands of all the
races can we have like an asura EDM band
okay so I already know the answer I just
wanted out there as we've said this took
almost a year it oh my god you're right
we started last December it's so super
it's not that we don't like the ideas of
having all these concerts for different
bands and I I do think that we have had
some like some like off-the-record
banding about like what would the
essaouira sound like well we so far a
sound like you know like what kind of
songs would they do just didn't know
that it's not easy to do yeah it's not
easy to do if it's something that we you
know I mean we never say we'll never
ever say never but like we don't have a
people dedicated to making these
I actually think yeah we would need a
Content team yeah yeah they need we need
our people to be making everything yeah
it it it would be so cool I agree yeah I
feel like the statement is like we hear
it yeah we also think it would be cool
but like it's a lot
we need an app before we consider this
yeah oh yeah yeah it's a lot yeah I
think we definitely need a little like
time on a tropical island away from
music before we consider this sounds
this sounds like a good use of your time
on this be listening to metal agent on
the tropical island just video because I
would have to like in order to like
switch to like idiot although idiom no I
would it be like I feel like it wouldn't
just be like dubstep I feel like I want
like an ass or a dubstep like Skrillex
level oh it's in my head now it's in my
head now definitely fun to think about
yeah we think about it you guys have to
remember that we would not want to
half-ass anything yes yeah we would want
it to be like legit legit - there's
honor of music that we pick for the
characters like the lyrics what are the
things that they would sing about so we
would want to give you something good
not just like oh and also and also their
context and like what what yeah like
what are we building around this time we
built a whole metal Legion event where
you're doing a bunch of minigames
yeah and the look of that did not stage
you know everything that Tracy did with
it like it yes Tracy Tracy built the
stage put up all the lights
why are you so it was just it was a lot
yeah there is one other come there's a
concert in Guild Wars already other than
met Allegiant is it Jam noon that's a
jam new Jam that's they have a much
smaller venue they're less arm to the
side of the play only once on yeah yes
and it's kind of hidden away right again
that was go find it alright we talked
about this a little bit what were some
specific real-world bands that were used
as inspiration for metal Legion yeah I
think that we just kind of hoping you
get yeah I want
speak use eclis like musically when I
wrote dragon hunter I had there's a
bunch of like thunder and stuff like
that which is very I totally pulled that
from Slayer rain blood and also abbath
and for me it was like Slayer anthrax
guar a lot of speed metal thrash metal
that's kind of like that to me was the
energy yeah yeah I heard that you what
was your list
I think lyrically I looked at a lot of
to get me in the right headspace like I
mentioned alien weapon tree have alien
weaponry and the who I would say and who
H you for those of you who have come
late wh-wh o hg o Kappa lead you but
then lyrically Metallica a lot of
Metallica a lot of Master of Puppets
and one and also oh my god why am i
blinking out you'll remember it two
o'clock in the morning I totally will no
you go on the roof you know what I was
thinking at one point I was like the
feeling that I got listening to like
Rammstein but not actually Rammstein
songs that make sense I couldn't help
but kind of give a little bit of a
German accent yeah we wanted to be that
sort of hardcore
but yeah wait no I'm gonna figure out
what this other before it before I say
oh hold on
no that's not it either yeah I feel like
she's just like in her Spotify playlist
right I totally am I could be a couple
egg cream like a ballad a solo was
probably my main mental reference yeah
for an entire thing Oh fade to black
like what the heck is wrong with me yes
yes guys fade to black Metallica and
then one would be the you can if you
want at least one I think because when I
looked at the structure lyrically it's
good song I remember being a like the
first time I ever saw that music video
and being like
well horrify you didn't show the bug
videos we don't I don't think we have
them but we can we don't have them like
I'm there yeah so let's talk about it's
just a question okay
oh yeah squinted eyes yeah you lied you
can see everything that's why is pi
rhetoric not head-banging while fighting
us he might be a monster but he can bang
after the music while trying to murder
us prop buses don't aren't creatures
right and also a head banging would the
head bang would reset at any time he
changed his thing and also would be a
new animation so that's the main reason
that's I mean it's just whoever I was
using you know one of the big things was
like you do this efficiently right like
we have this big flaming a Crockett or
ik construct but we did accidentally
make a thing that we don't have a video
of apparently is I did accidentally make
him dance at one point when I was
scripting scripting it up he stopped
doing his attacks and just going between
the attack poses which resulted in like
going like this on the stage which was
great you could fight him so that's
another reason I could make him dance
but it was mutually exclusive with
punching him in the face
you get dancing or fighting yeah I throw
another thing that I've stolen reused
and modified heavily Crockett Oryx my
favorite moves the carpet or cast is the
one where he scoops up the people
playing and throws them off the stage
Erik had made and I started to guide us
an actin boss that picks up one person
and throws them and I basically took
that and modified it heavily so you pick
up like scoop up a ton of people that's
fantastic Mike again it's like there's a
lot of cool stuff that we've done like
one-off that like you take and you put
it in a new context and it becomes
really neat and new yeah I mean yeah
anyway but yes that's where pirate story
basically pirate or doesn't had been
bang for numerous technical and
budgetary reasons and that's what he
will say if you ask him yes
and then explode in a fire but you know
yes okay so this question we've already
kind of answered and it's great to see
that people are loving this during one
concert I was skimming about on the
water below to work on trials and
whenever I got close to the stage I can
hear the music booming out and it
sounded exactly like distant music over
water is that a happy circumstance of
how game sound works or did you guys
work to make it that way well about the
immersion and that is very yeah yeah it
feels great alright so do we have
questions from chat I think okay I think
we got everything how we have these two
how did you decide on the specific metal
genre for the songs that metal Legion
would play I think it was a combination
of things
yeah musically like you were saying yeah
we wanted that energy because looking at
the event to like I think what every
time I came together was like this feels
right so how we landed into that genre
and I also think you know the difference
between like the sound of bound by blood
and having a high energy I'm like what
does the ballot of sole keeper need to
do I don't like what what does a char
metal ballad sound like as opposed to
like you don't want to like yeah yeah I
mean if you're in a hair metal like know
do you boo but but you're not I'm it's
not it's not very char that's fair it's
not very char yeah I mean like but
that's not no I don't know I mean I mean
like Nolan North definitely leaned a bit
into some Paul Stanley Lovell case make
delivery of his lines but I think
musically and that was kind of one of
those things that you yeah they'd all in
the North place yeah but I think that
like Joe's attempt to create a lead
vocal sound that was a slightly
different singing voice than speaking
with a lot of you know a lot of singers
do that especially in metal but make it
so that it still felt like it could be
coming from this
yeah my talking voice doesn't sound like
my singing voice right no I mean you're
putting on a different voice now
normally when you're walking around the
office yes alright so where did Matt
Allegiant come from how did they come
together what inspires them and who
makes their song was like the whole show
just now you to make a cannon okay a
little bit of your head cannon go I mean
it's just a but we kind of talked about
it and some of it pops up in the
dialogue they are group of Claudia who
clay dia clay dia their group of lady
who came together to plural of glady and
by the way yeah to play music and they'd
been playing in black Citadel for a
while and they'd started to catch on and
that's one of the reasons why I think
them singing us from in my head the fact
they're glady I was one of the reasons
why they really wanted to sing a song
about sole keeper and her trying out her
accomplishments because like it's it's
it's kind of like a wee Matt or to like
we're you know like for people who are
traditionally in charge society kind of
like what's down on to have AG lady a
hero
is a big deal to them and also that if
the flipside of this is if you remember
when war is talking in the minister of
morale the minister of morale is kind of
erasing the fact that she's glad yeah
he's like she's like you came one of our
own a blood Legionnaire and she's like
I'm not a blood so it's like I think the
minister of morale but this is I'm now I
think they probably let the soul the
soul keepers play as a song because of
her own perspective on the song but I
think it meant something very different
I think they're gonna listen to the song
you're right from a first anyone who's a
glady a-- is going to hear it
differently i think someone who is and
depending on whether or not you're happy
being a clayey right so if you listen to
that song that the tragedy of that
ballad is the loss of your band it's not
you know i mean someone might look at it
and be like look she came out of that
triumphantly and she still you know
kicked cry
a Pied Piper cracker toric I'm happy to
break you know into the ground but you
know she did that she was motivated the
fire that lit within her was from that
loss so when I was I hear what you're
saying I think that that else yeah I
also feel that loss probably speaks the
metal Legion though it's like yeah I
need to come together and form something
new from their own losses they probably
heard something yeah I have last name I
feel like there's a lot of lag head kid
yeah no I appreciate that because I
think I wanted even with the song itself
like I wanted there to be those
different reads of it like you should be
able to read it and look at it as
someone who's truly char would be so
affected by the loss of their war man
and also kind of lean into the idea of
you know that was the opportunity to
show how war bands are family how char
create family is different than how
families are really structured anywhere
else in Tyria in terms of like from a
very young age you are part of the
Farrar your war band these are your
siblings and so that moment of loss for
her wasn't just like oh now I got to
find like a new club to join right was
like family you know he's gone and like
what does that do to you emotionally
mentally like it changed her in such a
way that I feel like she stayed she
remains AG lady enjoying and creates the
vigil something that's a pseudo war band
in a lot of respects because that was a
comfort to her but also I don't think
that she could come back into the fold
like she's so wounded at this point so
so I think that I like the idea that
that like metal Legion could have
written it from different perspectives
and it becomes a rallying cry for what
it is to be char and what a charred
tragedy looks like yeah so yeah that's
my head cannon sort of when I was
working on it I can put on there that's
part of our my fair
I'm afraid part of the song is the
horror yeah and the whole when that
effect lyrically yeah you got the like
monster is horrible what's happening
like bases melting and freaking yeah
yeah coming like seeing her
can rise and try to kill her and then
yeah each other it's not like that I
think that the that actually Maura's
tragedy is what makes it's so important
that we did metal yeah as our genre
because metal music lyrically has this
leg all these allegories and metaphors
and it can get really dark and really
like visceral in its lyrics
it's not about rhyming stuff it's about
painting a picture to do sometimes I did
rhyme a little bit but but for the most
part like what I was leaning into was
painting the picture
it really doesn't really good especially
about like palette of soul keepers
telling a specific story like and we've
told it before in loose ways but like
that the lyrics really sell that as you
were saying like it sells Lahore and the
music does - yeah you do this little
like I don't know what you got ceccato
splendid much a slide yeah like the
music gets light goes gets a little like
off-kilter want to give that yeah and I
dim the light slightly it's beautiful
yeah okay so let's look I'm gonna I'm
gonna save that one for last we have
time for two more how hard was it to
create these songs is there any trouble
creating the lyrics or rhyming schemes
and how did you overcome that yes it was
a little bit effing hate rhyming y'all
it I hate rhyming I think it was a lot
of so one of the reasons that it took me
a long time to share the songs is that I
am NOT someone who writes very in a very
linear kind of fashion so I remember our
QA QA lathe
who's a total metalhead yeah leaned over
my shoulder at one point and was like
you know is there anything I can help
you with and like the piece of paper
that I was like hand writing my lyrics
on look like just a word jumble where I
would have like two lines up in this
corner and then like a cloud of two
things here and like a lyric would stick
in my head or like an image and then I'd
be like well I have these this great
like I've been coming to Joe with this
all the time I'd have like two lines and
I'm like I need the next lines need to
do this in terms of story
but it also has to rhyme and we would
spend like no doubt like 40 minutes 30
40 minutes trying to come up with like
but next too long sometimes or what
would work and how long it could be and
and like revising things so um there was
a lot of trouble I think coming up with
the rhymes but also making sure that the
given the vocal stylings that Joe was
leaning into making sure that there was
enough space to to time the lines
correctly and sometimes editing after he
would record something and be like okay
that word is just too much in the mouth
like how do we how do we flip that
around I think for ballad of soul keeper
it was much bound by blood I wasn't
concerned about rhyming because there's
so many metal songs that are just like
this I'm where is the page like ballad
is a ballad yeah ballad I definitely
went more for a traditional scheme and a
lot of things that my favorite rhyming
scheme is the one in metal Legion where
we REM Legion with Legion repeatedly
yeah but yeah I think that one of the
reasons that bound by blood was much
easier was because I was like and like
just wait for it you know and went for
like the words and images what is the
most like visceral stuff I could come up
with so I would say that overcoming it
was just time it was a lot of stress was
a lot of time it was a lot of like write
as much as I could give Joe something
that had a section that just said words
words words words words
I'd be like can you just lay this to
track as much as possible while I'm
still sort of you know figuring it out
yeah figuring out the other parts oh
okay yeah all right and very important
Sid is the best can you tell him sure
thank you for this idea dude yeah I'm
serious been a professional highlights
yeah it's it's a seeing people play
through it and really really love it has
I think we can like we everyone who
worked on this episode has it's just
it's it's been really nice it's been
really nice to have that upbeat and that
that that big I feel it's a big win yeah
yeah
it it was a risk and it paid off
and we all you know it was this we said
it was the ultimate collaboration so
like it would not be what it was if we
had not all come together to make it
work yeah I would definitely say that
it's it it emphasizes how important
communication is yes for a collaborative
medium like this like if we had not
constantly been chatting with each other
and I think a lot of times this would
even happen where we would be chatting
amongst the three of us and not have let
like other department leads even know
where the status of things was at are
different they'd be like what is going
on with the song I'm like no Joe and I
we got it it's good don't ask to see
anything yet well everybody so many
people work together on this for so long
and it really really shows so it was
it's been a joy watching you guys play
we in the game it has been fantastic
good work all of you guys thank you
thank you and thanks fans playing yeah
we're liking it it's been kind of
Awesome and rewarding to watch fans play
it and like destroy each other in the
pit yeah yeah the mosh pit event is one
ham fit that was very easy to implement
and it is it is a joy seeing everyone
converge on that one one thing I want to
know about that I forgot we didn't
mention the one thing that players
hadn't picked up as far as the themes of
the concert and like the undertones
first song you're emo cheering second
song your emote saluting and that's a
very deliberate choice yeah it's like
this episode a slippery slope yes
congratulations you're all complicit
yeah but I wanted stress don't fail that
event though that met Allegiant yeah are
there they are there okay there yeah hey
good the good folks
hey good folks but but it is about like
misappropriation you can misappropriate
their lyrics and do what you want to
with them in a really
negative way and that I think it's true
to life yeah and and in striking that
balance we talked about the striking
that balance was a big part of working
on this right like it is a big place
where we can hit our themes of our
episode really well but we also don't
want we don't want it to be like once
we've talked about it you're like oh I
can't enjoy this music you know it's I
mean there's like probably only really
two lyrics and bound my blood that are
problematic but like you know there's a
lot of hip-hop songs I sing sometimes
I'm like I'm not saying that so you know
that's that's that's our brand of
quality and it's less problematic than
some hip-hop songs it's just you they're
specific bits of it is subparts they
don't sing what you're not comfortable
with y'all yeah that's my PSA that is a
good note to finish yeah don't sing what
you're not comfortable with get the
middle age of music from our SoundCloud
get Allegiant shirt Vince my fans see
what you're comfortable with
thank you all for your time thank you
all for your time yeah as always
yeah yeah we're good Horton Shari oke
and like posted we want to hear also
guys recording your stuff sorry okay
it's true that's true we I'm gonna get
it did you get the word term karaoke
yeah it's true that's a pun for you
Shari okey thank you guys we'll see you
next time you wanted to say
[Music]
Oh
justice
dragon
don't people
[Music]
you
[Music]
you
[Music]
you

External links

• Guild Chat Episode 92 - Metal Legion, Guild Wars 2 official YouTube channel
• Ballad of Soulkeeper, SoundCloud.com
• Fear the Metal Legion, SoundCloud.com
• Bound by Blood (With vocals), SoundCloud.com
• Bound by Blood (No vocals), SoundCloud.com

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